These various factors — ranging from economic interests to political maneuvering — help explain the strange paradox of countries scrambling to whitewash al-Sharaa and curry favor with a regime that was considered a terrorist entity just months ago. It is a fitting spectacle for the state of global politics in this Trumpian era.
Atrocious article. Ridiculously biased wording: Al-Julani “mutated”. He “shed” his old clothes.
As for content, basically fuck all. “He’s a sectarian dictator and he’s doing familial nepotism.” “Iran doesn’t like him for sectarian reasons.” How about actually analyze his policies and statements? From everything I’ve read he’s interested in a stable, secular, Democratic Syria and is courting foreign recognition and investment.
He founded Al Qaeda in Syrian and is doing nothing to stop massacres of Christians and Alawites.
He is an unelected puppet of Israel and the US. The only reason he’s in charge is so that he will agree to his country being carved up by Israel and Turkey.
Fuck that guy
doing nothing to stop massacres of Christians and alawites
“On March 10, al-Sharaa condemned the recent mass killings of Alawite Muslims… He pledged to hold all perpetrators accountable, including those within his own ranks”
What more do you want? This is after alawite assadist insurgents ambushed government troops, by the way. This is all from Wikipedia.
Of course he’s unelected, he just ousted the old boss. They’re working with an interim government. They only just got around to parliamentary elections. If they don’t hold presidential elections within their five year target you can come back and make me eat crow.
And by the way, the majority of the “those poor alawites” articles I saw while looking this up were from Israeli publications. So consider who you’re shoulder to shoulder with on this.
Al Sharaa words mean absolutely nothing. This guy is literally one of the reasons why ISIS exists and he was involved in actual terrorist attacks, and he’s still an islamist now. Taking his words at face value is like taking the Taliban talking about human rights before the US left Afghanistan seriously, it’s an idiotic take.
I don’t know what propaganda you’ve been snorting but trying to frame the Alawites which have always been marginalized group in Syria subject to constant discrimination and violence as the aggressors is just victim blaming. Trying to pretend that there’s some connection to Israel, doesn’t change the facts, it just means you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Until you answer “what more do you want” I’m assuming you want al-Julani to personally gather up the perpetratora and lead them all in singing Kumbayah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_2025_Western_Syria_clashes
Alawites weren’t marginalized under Assad. That’s why there’s a strong pro-assad alawite faction doing things like ambushing government troops. In fact, Assad’s family was alawite and he put alawites in leadership positions in the government and military, in fact.
How much reading have you done outside of the OP article and maybe one or two others in the mainstream media? Did you even realize the regime was collapsing before it was over? I ask because I really think you’re worse informed than I am
I literally lived in Syria for. Some pretentious schmuck on Lemmy pretending they’re experts on a place they’ve never been to is rich.
The Alawites were marginalized under Assad. The government is not the one that does marginalization, it’s the general population. The majority of Syria is Sunni muslim and Arab, and anyone who isn’t that is seen as a kafur and not a real Syrian. This is why all the minorities (Druze, Kurds, Alawites, Assyrians, etc) took up arms and tried to get some level of autonomy. They knew that the moment Assad was gone, he’s going to replace by a government less secular yet just as ruthless and they’re going to pay the price… And guess what? That’s exactly what happened.
They got the literal Syrian branch of Al Qaeda as the new government and it’s leader as their new president. Al Sharaa is a well known terrorist, islamist, and he’s infamous for being one of the primary reasons why ISIS exists. The moment HTS took over, there dozens of reports of islamist fighters under the HTS, aka the Al Nusra front, who went on sprees massacring Alawites just for being Alawites. There are also reports of them them kidnapping and enslaving women, but that’s something you just want to conveniently ignore.
What did Al Sharaa do? Nothing! He did nothing. The islamists who committed these crimes are not being exiled or prosecuted and the victims are not being compensated, rescued, or given justice. There has no change in policy outside of Al Sharaa giving lip service to not piss of the west. In reality, he’s enabling these islamists which is why the violence against the Alawites and other minorities is still going on right now. Al Sharaa is literally using Sharia law to train new soldiers and police officers so he could have them enforce “morality”.
Idk why you’re dickriding for a terrorist like him so hard, but this is not the hill to die on. The marginalized minorities in the country are not the problem, that’s a fascistic way of thinking. The cold hard reality is that Al Sharaa is and always has been a jihadist, and this violence is just a part of his ideology.
Right, the alawites were oppressed when they had minority rule just like how the Afrikaners were oppressed in apartheid South Africa. We’ll have to wait and see. Good talking to you.
You’re talking out of your ass. The Alawites have literally never ruled Syria for as long as Syria has been a thing. Stop spreading misinformation.
It’s too early to have much idea of “his policies.” At best, we can keep an open mind and watch him govern for a while. All you’ve read is speculation and PR statements by him. So maybe don’t yell at people for not analyzing his policies JUST yet.
keep an open mind and watch him govern
That’s what I’ve been doing, and what the author here seemingly hasn’t
Can we at least criticize his policy of blowing up American soldiers with IEDs? Or would that be covered under “dead-naming”?
The ones in Iraq? Can’t fault him for that
Yes, you fucking can. The fuck? He’s a Syrian from Syria who left his country to go to Iraq for the sole purpose of joining Al Qaeda, which was already a well established terrorist organization that’s renowned for it’s evil attacks at that time, and started plotting ways to kill American soldiers. In what world is that justifiable? I’m an Iraqi myself and this guy is a terrorist. Being against the US invasion doesn’t mean you start supporting actual terrorists, that’s just stupid.
Weren’t American soldiers killing countless civilians during that war? I believe 61% of Americans see the war as unjustified in hindsight. Makes for a bit of a complicated situation.
Should we see America entering a war without justification as evil too or just a big oopsie?
Al-Qaeda is in every way unjustifiable but my guess is the person you’re responding to sees this individual as a resistance fighter of some sort, which must be in some way how the West sees him for them to be cozying up to him like this.
The regime he toppled was undeniably evil which makes things even messier.
I don’t think we necessarily disagree. Al Assad was a ruthless man who brought an era of terror to the country. However, at the same time, he’s been replaced by another ruthless man with a history that indicates he’ll also bring his own era of terror. In this sense, Syria isn’t exactly free, bur under new management.
Likewise, we can agree that the American invasion of Iraq was wrong and unjustifiable, but also acknowledge that Al Sharaa committing terrorist attacks is also wrong and unustifiable.
The main point here is that two wrongs don’t make a right, and the guy I’m replying to trying to justify terrorism is just morally represented.
No, but it’s not a reason to bring him to the White House and celebrate him.
Are we ready to talk about the Israel-alQueda ties yet? Cause holy shit, the implications of that.